GREAT WHITE SHARKS IN BRITISH WATERS?

Content Updated:
28th June 2012

The most absolutely honest answer to the question "are there white
sharks in British waters?" is that we simply do not know for sure,
although there are several reports that suggest they may be occasional
visitors. There have been many stories in the media over recent years
but, at the time of writing (see header) there has never been a single
confirmed sighting of a Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias)
in UK waters. Before I am inundated with e-mails linking to The Sun
newspaper’s website, let’s take a moment to look at the evidence.

If you were a regular reader of the tabloids a couple of years ago,
you might be forgiven for thinking that anyone dipping their toe in the
Great British briny (otherwise referred to as the North East Atlantic)
ran a considerable risk of being ‘torn limb from limb’! Indeed,
according to an article in The Sun newspaper during 2003, Great white
sharks are now “patrolling Britain’s shores”! So, how did this media
hyperbole begin?

So It Begins…
On 24th August 1999, a group fishing aboard the vessel Blue Fox
(skippered by Mike Turner and Phil Britts) off Cambeak Head near
Crackington Haven in Cornwall were in the process of releasing a 9-14kg
(20-30 lb) tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus) they had caught when they
were investigated by a large shark, estimated to be around 4.6m (15ft)
long. The crew described how the shark passed the stern and rolled
slightly on to its side, exposing its white underside before swimming
away. The crew, which included two angling journalists fishing for
Porbeagles (Lamna nasus) at the time, had seen many Porbeagles, Shortfin
makos (Isurus oxyrinchus) and Basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) during
their trips and were able to rule out all three. Additionally, Mr Turner
spent many years living off a boat in South Africa and is very familiar
with white sharks; he is adamant the animal he saw was a Great white.
Although there were cameras onboard, as one of the Blue Fox's regular
customers -- Adrian Bradyshaw -- pointed out to me: "The capture on film
(let alone a good quality identifying photo) of a fleeting event, such
as the appearance of a GW at the side of your boat, to disappear as
quickly as it materialised, is no mean feat." Consequently, there were
no photos taken and so, despite the remarkable credibility of this
account, there remains no unquestionable proof of the shark species
involved. The credibility of the Blue Fox encounter was enhanced by two
subsequent events shortly afterwards. The day after the Blue Fox
incident, in almost exactly the same spot, two men fishing for tope on
the boat Blissful witnessed a large shark -- which they said was as
least as long as their 5.2m (17ft) boat -- surface and bite two-thirds
off the shark they were hauling in. The full description of the shark's
appearance and behaviour towards the boat match perfectly that given by
Mr Briggs and his colleagues the day before. Finally, approximately two
weeks after the Blue Fox encounter (i.e. September 1999), a lobster
fisherman reported a large shark -- estimated to be about 4.6m --
entangled in his rope off Tintagel Head, about 18km (12 mi.) away from
the initial sighting. The crew described the shark as having a
slate-grey back, bright white belly and a crescent-shaped mouth with
triangular teeth. Unfortunately, because the carcass had no commercial
value to the fisherman, it was cut loose without being photographed; the
description, however, makes it hard to believe it could be anything
other than a white shark.

The Blue Fox story made the headlines in the British press about two
days after it happened and the 'shark fever' began. A day-or-so later,
some ‘evidence’ of white shark activity was presented by The Sun,
in the form of a shaky home movie showing a large shark swimming just
offshore from Tintagel (north Cornwall). The footage undoubtedly showed
a Basking shark -- which are frequent visitors to the South
coast during summer -- and not a Great white, as the newspaper stated.
The sightings off Padstow were sufficiently tantalizing to spur a
privately funded 13-day expedition by several shark biologists and
enthusiasts, led by Richard Peirce, to the waters off north Devon and
Cornwall during August 2003. Unfortunately, the expedition found no
trace of white sharks (photo, left) in the 104km (70 mi.) stretch they
explored between Trevose Head and Hartland Point. The finding that
should cause us most concern is that the group found very few sharks at
all; considering their use of chum, there should have been considerably
more sharks about (thus pointing to a serious decline in numbers).

As it happens, Mr Peirce's expedition coincided with the re-firing of
the 'British white shark debate' following a couple of sightings in June
and July 2003. The latter of these was a report made by a 14 year old
girl who, using binoculars from her position about 18m (60ft) up on a
cliff-top, watched what she perceived -- based on the size of dolphins
nearby -- to be a 3.5m (12ft) Great white feeding on a shoal of fish off
Baggy Point, near Croyde in North Devon. The shark apparently exhibited
“indicative” bite-and-spit technique while feeding next to a pier. The
description given of the shark was extremely detailed, almost textbook,
for the conditions. Unfortunately, nobody else appears to have seen the
shark in question and there is no other evidence to confirm the presence
of a white shark (some shark biologists have also questioned aspects of
the description). The topic died down for a while before re-emerging in
the papers briefly during March 2005, when several dead porpoises washed
up along the Durham coast with what appeared to be large bite marks in
them. Closer inspection, however, suggested that the mammals were caught
as bycatch, dumped back in the water and the ‘bite marks’ were caused by
seagulls and other small scavengers pecking at exposed flesh.

Despite some very credible sightings off Scotland during late 2003
and mid-2005 (see below), the topic went cold in the media until the
last fortnight in July 2007, when the entire debate surfaced once again
(no pun intended!). This time, two more alleged white shark sightings
came out of Cornwall.

The first to hit the headlines involved the appearance of a large
animal breaching (i.e. rising out of, and crashing back into, the
water). The spectacle was caught on tape by a tourist filming dolphins
about 200 yards off Porthmeor Beach in St. Ives during June. When the
video was played back, the gentleman saw what appeared to be a large
shark breaching among the dolphins. The video was picked up by The Sun
and made the front page of their 28th July 2007 edition. Video stills
appeared in the paper itself, while the video was put on the newspaper’s
website. The online version of the video was understandably compressed
for easy web transfer, so the low bitrate and compression artefacts made
it difficult to make out the dolphins, let alone the shark. However, one
assumes that the experts who commented on the footage -- e.g. the
Natural History Museum’s Fish Curator Oliver Crimmen, and the Shark
Trust’s Richard Peirce -- probably saw the original footage, which one
can imagine was of significantly better quality (although having read
Richard Peirce's account in his Sharks of British Seas, I'm not so sure
anymore!). Regardless, the experts gave the only response they could
under the circumstances: that the animal in the video looked like a
large shark and a Great white could not be ruled out. That is apparently
all some of the tabloids needed to hear and declared a “killer fish”
present in UK waters.

A couple of days after the original footage went public, The Sun ran
a second story after being sent a video of a shark fin slicing through
the water near to where the dolphins were filmed. Moreover, this shark
was filmed by a tourist from a pleasure cruise just off St. Ives only a
few days after the dolphin footage was taken. Once again, video stills
made the papers and the video was uploaded to The Sun’s website. The fin
of this particular shark, coupled with its motion through the water,
leaves no doubt that it was a Basking shark. Unfortunately, despite
reliable sources from The Shark Trust and Plymouth Marine Aquarium
stating categorically that the footage is of a 3.6m (12ft) Cetorhinus
maximus, two misidentifications by people involved with shark education
-- one by a curator at Birmingham Sealife Centre and a second by a
former Discovery Channel Shark Week presenter -- led to a headline of
“Girl Great white is Maneater” in The Sun.

Worse than a couple of erroneous identifications of a Basking shark,
several other myths appeared in an interview published in The Sun. It is
always difficult to interpret quotations in the media but, seemingly
based entirely on fin colouration, the former Shark Week presenter
reputedly identified the shark as a female Great white; he is quoted as
saying “That’s definitely a Great white — probably an adult female about
12ft long. Her mate will be close by.” Now, to the very best of my
knowledge, there is insufficient sexual dimorphism in sharks as a group
to determine sex without clasper analysis – I have never come across
anything in the literature to suggest it is possible to sex any species
of shark based on the colour of their dorsal fin. Furthermore, the data
on white shark courtship and mating is palpably scant – mating has never
been observed and only one description of possible courtship behaviour
exists for this species. In a second quote from this Australian-born
marine biologist he says of the ‘basker video’: “I’ve seen hundreds of
Great whites in all weathers — light, dark, morning and evening — and
that dorsal fin cutting through the water is quick, thick and the
correct shape.” I have never been fortunate enough to encounter a Great
white, so one might consider me insufficiently experienced to challenge
such a statement. Nonetheless, based on fin morphometrics (see box below
and image above), the latter part of the quotation seems incorrect.
There are other inaccuracies within the interview, which are mixed with
genuine observations (e.g. that white sharks migrate vast distances) as
well as some reasonably sage general water-safety advice.

BOX: The basic external anatomy of a shark's dorsal fin is shown in
the left image and an outline of the fin from the Basking shark and Great
white (not to scale) featured in the photo composition above. One might
argue that there is no such thing as a 'typical' shark fin - among
basking sharks, the fin morphology can vary considerably (see Martin
How's Article for the BSoUP's site). The outlines on the
right, however, can be considered generally representative;
both fins form a rough scalene triangle, with the Basking shark's being
more right-angled and that of the white shark more acute-angled. As can
be seen, the fin of the Great white has a steep gradient to the anterior
margin and a slightly 'hooked' apex, leading to a concaved posterior
margin. The Basking shark fin has a shallower gradient to the anterior
margin, leading to a broadly-curved apex and a straight or slightly
convex posterior margin.

Hot on the heels of the ‘breach’ and ‘basker’ videos, came the
‘spy-hopping hoax’. Spy-hopping is the name given to the curious
behaviour during which a Great white (and some other sharks and marine
mammals, especially whales) hang vertically (or at a roughly 40-degree
angle) in the water column, with their head out of the water. It
appears, from this behaviour, that the shark is attempting to see what’s
happening on the surface, but -- given that the change in density
between the mediums (air and water) would make vision blurred at best --
this seems an unlikely explanation. It has also been suggested that
spy-hopping might be a way of scaring pinnipeds (seals and sea lions)
off rocks and into the water, although one might argue whether going
into the water would be the animal's first reaction upon seeing a white
shark. A third theory proposes that spy-hopping might be a method of
sampling airborne odours - volatile compounds are likely to disperse
farther and faster in the air than in the water and a similar behaviour
was documented in Oceanic whitetip sharks (Carcharhinus longimanus) by
two biologists at Moscow's Research Institute of Human Morphology in a
1994 paper to the Journal of Ichthyology. Despite the aforementioned,
there is one interesting feature of this behaviour that points to a
fourth explanation. Spy-hopping only seems to occur in baited situations
-- that is to say it isn't seen during observations of sharks under
'natural' conditions (i.e. without chum/bait) -- which points to it
being a response to hyperstimulation. Whatever the reason, it is a
fairly well known behaviour of the white shark and has provided many a
wildlife photographer with food for his/her table. It was just such a
photo that appeared on the front cover of the Newquay Guardian on 31st
July 2007, accompanied by the headline “Great white spotted in resort
waters”.

A local man claimed to have taken the photo while out fishing for
mackerel off Towan Head, Newquay in Cornwall. In this case there was no
doubt that the photo was of Carcharodon carcharias, although there were
several not so niggling inconsistencies with the shots. There were two
main problems: the photo was a perfect image of a white shark in glassy
seas, despite having been taken with a telephoto lens from about 30m
(100 ft) in Cornwall’s choppy waters; also, if the shark was 30m from
the boat, why was it spy hopping? (Sharks seem to do this when they
approach objects, rather than swimming along with their noses out of the
water). These apparent discontinuities raised the suspicions of most of
the shark biologists (and photographers) to whom it was shown.
Obviously, the tabloids picked up on this photo and in 1st August
edition of The Sun, Doug Herdson (a biologist at the National Marine
Aquarium in Plymouth at the time) was misquoted as saying that “it was
the first confirmed sighting of the legendary creature in UK waters”;
what Doug actually said was that the photo showed a Great white and that
although it was not impossible for this species to inhabit UK waters,
there was simply no way of telling where the photo had been taken.

Porthmeor Beach, St. Ives in
Cornwall. Video footage of dolphins offshore from here appeared to show
a large shark breaching among them.

Perhaps the ultimate death knell for the photo came in the form of a
quote from the Newquay Harbour Master, who told The Times newspaper that
‘…the Benita Ann, the boat that [the local man] claimed to have been
fishing from, had been sold to someone in Scotland 15 years ago and had
not been back in the area.’ On 9th August the photographer admitted that
the photo was taken during a recent fishing trip off Cape Town, in South
Africa, telling The Guardian newspaper he “…just sent [the photo]
in as
a joke. I didn’t expect anyone to be daft enough to take it seriously.”
Despite this ‘joke’, the chairman of Newquay Chamber of Commerce told
The Guardian that the stormy summer had been enough for Cornwall to deal
with, without people spreading malicious material of this nature.
Nonetheless, the Cornwall Tourist Board disagreed, telling the paper
that the “great, great white wheeze” had actually been good for the
area, providing beneficial publicity and apparently failing to
discourage people from visiting the region. With this case exposed as a
fraud, it leaves one credible report of possible white shark spy-hopping behaviour off Britain, from Looe (Cornwall) - see below.

The debate was reignited the following year, when several other cases
made the British press. At the beginning of 2008 two incidents of marine
mammals washing ashore around the UK, with wounds appearing similar to
those that could have been inflicted by a large predatory shark,
appeared in the press. This first made the headlines in The Sun on 3rd
January when a dead seal sporting what looked like a large bite mark
washed ashore on a lifeboat slipway in Sheringham on the Norfolk Coast.
Analysis of photos by various shark experts (including Ian Fergusson,
George Burgess and Malcolm Francis) concluded that it could have been
inflicted either by Great white, or a large mako, but without tooth
fragments it is impossible to say for sure.

Towan Head, Newquay in Cornwall
(U.K.). The source of the "great, great white wheeze".

The second incident made the pages of The Daily Mail on 8th January,
with implications of the involvement of a "rogue killer shark"! The
photo (see link) showed the carcass of a porpoise that washed ashore
just south of Aldeburgh in Suffolk; however, the wounds on the carcass
seem just as likely to have been caused by a boat propeller and opened
up by scavengers. The Shark Trust were quick to point out that it is
quite common for all kinds of stuff to wash up along our shores when we
get strong easterly winds and that, even if either incident could be
conclusively linked to white shark predation, there is no way to know
how far offshore the attack (or scavenging) happened.

In August 2008 two shark-related articles made the pages of The Sun.
The first showed stills taken from a video shot by a remote controlled
vehicle working around the Kittiwake Oil Platform, situated 120 miles (~
178 km) off the coast of Aberdeen. The video clearly shows a predatory
shark, but it's not a Great white. The shape -- rounded apex and
straight posterior margin -- of the dorsal fin and the white tip at the
bottom trailing edge of the free rear tip (see
left) is indicative of a Porbeagle shark. Unfortunately, in one of the accompany tabloid
articles, Doug Herdson was again misquoted; in an open e-mail to a shark
discussion list (reproduced here with his permission), he wrote:

"When the photo concerned was sent through to me, I immediately
phoned him back and told him that as expected it was definitely a Porbeagle and went through the identifying features with him. I told him
that though related to and similar to a white shark there was no
possibility that this was one.<snip> I made no mention about waters
around rigs being warmer; is it? And said that they can occur from 5° to
22°C, preferring 14° to 17°C, hence they would have no problem in North
Sea waters."

The second article appeared in The Sun three days later and contained
a photo of a shark tooth found on a Menai Strait beach, near Anglesey in
North Wales - interestingly, the photo showed what looks to be a beach
at Rhosneigr, which isn't actually along the Menai Strait (it's about 8
miles north-west). Anyway, the tooth is almost certainly from a Great
white and it looks to be one from the lower jaw set. This would be a
very interesting discovery were it not for one niggling detail: the
small hole drilled neatly into the tooth root. This suggests that the
tooth came off a necklace or keychain!

The Evidence
So, if many of the white shark ‘sightings’ made to date are either
highly ambiguous or obviously a case of mistaken identity, are there any
compelling reports to suggest Great whites do come to our shores? The
answer is that some reports are certainly more compelling than others,
but we're still lacking anything concrete. Contrary to popular
misconception, the idea that Great white sharks might visit UK waters is
not new and, as we shall see, there are credible reports dating back to
at least the 1970s. Indeed, in his fascinating 2008 book Sharks in
British Seas, Shark Trust chairman Richard Peirce (who actively collects
and investigates such reports) says "from 1996 until the time of writing
I can certainly say that I have heard of between 70 and 80 possible
great white shark encounters", going on to explain that seven of these
accounts remain credible following further examination. I will relate a
summary of the details from some of these credible reports, but readers
interested in more detailed accounts are directed to Mr Peirce's Sharks
in British Seas book or film.

The first credible account of which I am aware involved a white shark
reportedly checking out a shark fisherman off the southeast coast of
Cornwall. In July 1970, Looe-based angler John Reynolds was pulling in
his chum bags and fishing lines at about 3pm when a large shark surfaced
a few feet behind his boat, stuck its head out of the water and looked
at John before slipping back beneath the surface and swimming away.
Twenty-nine years later we have the Blue Fox's encounter and, three
years after that, another report came to light. In July 2002, a lobster
fisherman working the waters northeast of Cornwall's Quies Islands
spotted something large breach out of the water; apparently, closer
inspection found lots of blood and seal ‘bits’ in the water. Shortfin
mako and Thresher (Alopias vulpinnus) sharks are both known to breach,
but Great whites are the only sharks known to attack pinnipeds in this
way - the only other animal that is seen to breach when attacking seals
is the Killer whale (Orcinus orca). The fisherman had seen Killer whales
before and was certain the breaching animal he saw was not one. Two days
after this sighting, a sailor reported a large shark -- that wasn't,
according to the witness, a Basking shark -- following his boat for much
of the journey from Padstow to Newquay (through the waters in which the
reported breach occurred).

On 4th July 2003, a party of four divers provided a very credible
description of the suspected Great white that came to inspect their dive
boat as they were preparing to enter the water off the western edge of
the Summer Isles, near Ullapool. Among the party was a doctor who
provided a very detailed description of the 5+m (16.5 ft.) shark and its
behaviour towards the vessel. Having been looking for Basking sharks to
swim with, the party were sure the shark they saw was not Cetorhinus
maximus. In his book, Mr Peirce wrote of this account: "I believe that Dr Greenstreet and his party saw a great white shark". A couple of weeks
later, on 15th July, George Carter and Dod Bremner encountered a large
shark -- estimated to be at least 5.5m (18ft) long -- entangled in one
of their coding nets off Lybster, just off northeast Scotland's east
Caithness Coast. In a short paper to the Glasgow Naturalist in 2008, Mr
Carter wrote: "The shark was broad-headed and the steely-grey dorsal
surface was smooth, unlike that of a basking shark." Both fishermen
agreed that the shark wasn't a "muldoan" (a local name for a Basking
shark); they saw enough of the tail to rule out a Thresher shark and
eliminated a Porbeagle based on size. Mr Carter went on to say: "Having
checked though many books and guides we concluded that it was possibly a
Great White Shark Carcharodon carcharias, but we could not be 100%
certain." Unfortunately, it is not possible to confirm the animal's
identification from the photo Mr Carter was able to get before the shark
broke free of the net - it does, however, appear to be a Lamnid (i.e.
member of the Lamnidae family). (Photo: A
Basking shark swimming off Pendeen, Cornwall during June 2007)

In December 2003 there was a report of a large shark -- estimated at
between 5.5m and 5.8m (19ft) long -- caught in fishing great near
Pentland Firth, a channel between the Ornkey Islands and the coast of
northeast Scotland. The shark laid in the net snapping at the fish,
before working itself free and swimming away. The fisherman didn't claim
that the shark was Carcharodon (saying only that it wasn't a Basking
shark), but the photo taken showed a shark that looked very much like a
Great white; Mr Peirce told me that, had he phrased his question to the
shark experts who saw the photo differently (i.e. without mentioning
that it was caught off Scotland), this picture would probably represent
the first proof of white sharks in our waters. This capture remains
probably the most credible evidence -- certainly the most credible photo
-- of Great whites in British waters to-date. A year-and-a-half after
the Pentland Firth capture, in July 2005, fishermen on a boat trolling
for pollock (Pollachius spp.) about 3km (2 mi.) south of Locheport on
the east coast of North Uist (Scotland) reported that a large shark,
fitting the description of a Great white, surfaced next to them briefly
before disappearing. During the following year, a large shark was caught
in a trawl net off Scotland; a photo was taken but again it is
impossible to be sure of the species.

Scotland was the source of another potential Great white sighting in
2007. During late June or early July some interesting mobile phone video
footage came to light showing what appears to be a large shark,
estimated by the witnesses to be about 3m (10ft) long, attacking a seal
in the Sound of Harris (Outer Hebrides, UK). Mr Peirce showed the video
to several shark experts from around the world. Ian Fergusson and
Leonard Compagno concluded that there was a 60% likelihood that the
shark was a Great white and a 40% likelihood that it was a Shortfin mako,
while Henry Mollet, Chris Fallows and Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch said that
it could be either, but favoured it being a mako. Mr Peirce considered
either a mako or Porbeagle to be the most likely candidate.

There are some other tantalizing, if less detailed, accounts that
some have attributed to white sharks. In January of 1998 a large shark
-- estimated at more than 5m (16.5ft) long and weighing about 500kg
(1100 lbs) -- was seen chasing seals that had been attracted to salmon
cages in Sandsound Voe (off the west coast of the Shetland Islands);
some shark biologists have suggested it may actually have been a Sixgill
(Hexanchus griseus), rather than a Great white. Similarly, reports over
the last few of years of large brown sharks being caught and released
off the Cornish coast are probably Greenland sharks (Somniosus
microcephalus). In July 1999 a large shark apparently followed kayakers
up and down the coast in the Sea of Hebrides (West Scotland) and seemed
to be the reason local seals refused to come off the rocks – the
kayakers returned to the bay the following day and found what they
described as a seal bitten in two (unfortunately, no photos were taken).
I have also heard rather vague reports that fishermen have apparently
seen white sharks taking seals in the Bristol Channel, but I have yet to
see any convincing evidence of this. There is, however, one interesting
record of a badly injured seal that washed ashore on the Welsh coast;
photos were taken (and recently declassified) and from the bite mark
forensics, Shark Specialist Group biologist Ian Fergusson suggested that
it could have been a white shark attack. The report is interesting
because it is from a whole seal that was otherwise relatively fresh.
There are also numerous reports of of white sharks in the Minch and
Little Minch (Western Isles of Scotland) stretching back to the
mid-1990s, although there is no definite proof. There have, Mr Peirce
informs me, been several reports of possible Great whites in British
waters in the last couple of years, but none that can be considered
credible.

Why? Why Not?
Rather than questioning whether a white shark would visit, or live
around, the UK we should perhaps be asking ourselves why we have not
come across Great whites off our coast before. The water temperatures
off the south coast of England have an average range of 6 to 20+ deg-C
(43 – 60+ deg-F), which is perfectly within the white shark's 3.4 to 26
deg-C (38 – 79 deg-F) tolerance. We also have a large population of
seals -- about 50,000 Common (Phoca vitulina) and 120,000 Grey (Halichoerus
grypus - left) -- and we know that pinnipeds represent a
significant food source throughout parts of the Great white’s range.
Finally, white sharks are known to travel quite remarkable distances – a
paper published in the journal Science during 2005 tracked a female
white shark (named Nicol) 22,208 km (13,800 miles) from the tagging site
off South Africa to Australia and back (South Africa to Australia was
completed in 99 days!). Indeed, white sharks are the most wide-ranging
and widely distributed of all shark species (for which we have data) and
specifically why we don’t see them off the UK is something of an enigma;
an enigma that has nothing to do with the oft-cited ‘Global Warming’.

The most northerly historical record for white sharks in the
northeast Atlantic was from the mouth of the Loire in the Bay of Biscay
off the French coast and comes from a set of preserved jaws. In
addition, three men fishing slightly farther south -- at Pertuis d'
Antioche, off La Rochelle, France -- caught a 2.1m (7ft) juvenile female
Great white in their nets on 24th May 1977. Great white sharks are also
well known from the Mediterranean Sea, even to the extent that some
authorities have suggested certain parts of the Med may be a breeding
ground for this species. For the Atlantic as a whole, the most northerly
records for white sharks come from the northern sections of the Gulf of
St. Lawrence off Newfoundland in Canada (the same latitude as the
English Channel). Briefly, it is worth mentioning that Great whites seem
to travel farther north in the Pacific than in the Atlantic; reports
exist as far north as Siberia, although the most northerly confirmed
record was from the south-eastern Gulf of Alaska, which is on
approximately the same latitude as the Outer Hebrides. One specimen was
reported in a short communication to the journal Copeia by fisheries
biologist William Royce back in 1963 (it stranded at Craig in S.E.
Alaska around October of 1961); the shark was said to have been 15ft 4in
long (~4.7m) with a girth of about 9ft (2.7m).

Perhaps the best endorsement of how unsurprising it would be to find
a white shark off the UK -- from an ichthyological perspective -- comes
from the eminent shark scientist Leonard Compagno at the South African
Museum in Cape Town. In his 2001 revision of the Sharks of the World
catalogue (published by the Food and Agricultural Organization), Prof. Compagno has extended the range of the Great white to the English
Channel, North and Irish Sea. Compagno writes “possibly England” when
listing known locations for this species. As we have seen, however,
without tangible evidence -- very compelling photo or video evidence or
a voucher (physical reference) specimen -- we must stop short of
proclaiming UK waters the playground of Carcharodon carcharias.

Of course, despite all the reasons why Great whites should be found
in our seas, there is one very good explanation for their apparent
absence: their global scarcity. Ex-fisheries biologist, Doug Herdson, is
reasonably convinced that white sharks are now so rare in the North
Atlantic that the chance of spotting one in our waters is vanishingly
small. In an interview with the BBC, Doug said: “Temperature and
conditions here are all fine, and I'm sure they have been here in the
last 3-4,000 years, but they are now so rare it is very unlikely.”
Additionally, some have suggested that, given the extent of Britain's
fishing industry, if white sharks were around, we'd have caught one by
now (but, have we?). I'm certainly more receptive to the suggestion that
the depletion of our fish stocks -- despite the mammals in their diet,
white sharks are primarily piscivorous -- may have a role in the
apparent absence of this macrocarnivore (i.e. lack of suitable food). I
doubt, however, that this is the whole story.

Possible ContendersIf we do the judiciously unthinkable and close our minds to the
possibility that the reports we have looked at above are in some way
white shark related, what other sharks could we be looking at? We've
already come across species such as the mako and Porbeagle -- both of
which are relatives (i.e. members of the same family, Lamnidae) of the
Great white and, as a consequence, look similar -- but are they genuine
contenders? The Shortfin mako (right) is a large, fast moving,
predatory shark, which is predominantly a summer visitor to UK waters;
it is found along the southern coasts of Ireland and England (as far
east as the Isle of Wight) – there are sporadic records from the Bristol
Channel and the waters off Wales, with rare reports from Scottish waters
and the North Sea. The Porbeagle is another large predatory shark that
is perhaps more easily confused with the Great white by the uninitiated;
this shark is apparently present year-round in UK waters, although
recent unregulated fishing off the Southern England may have
substantially decreased numbers.

It’s all very well of us to say that makos and Porbeagles
(below) bear a
‘family resemblance’ to white sharks, but do they match up in terms of
size and diet? Well, generally neither species attains the same mature
lengths as the Great white. It has been suggested that Shortfin makos
reach a theoretical maximum of just over 4m (13ft) -- although,
curiously, a report of two makos caught in a salmon net off the coast of
North Yorkshire, put one animal at ca. 5m and the other larger -- with
an average closer to 2.5 or 3m (~ 9ft). The Porbeagle has a probable
maximum length of just less than 4m, with British-caught specimens
averaging 1.5 to 2m (~ 6ft). White sharks, on the other hand, can reach
at least 6m (19.5 ft), although they mature at anywhere between 3.5m and
5m (11.5 to 16.5 ft) depending on sex. In terms of diet, all three
species are heavily piscivorous (fish-eaters); indeed, the Great white
feeds predominantly on fish throughout its life cycle. However, as most
who have watched Shark Week or read pretty much any shark book will
know, upon reaching maturity, white sharks expand their diet to include
a greater proportion of marine mammals (especially pinnipeds). The same
is not true -- at least, not to the same extent -- of either the mako or
the Porbeagle. Indeed, the Porbeagle appears to feed exclusively on fish
and cephalapods (mainly squid). Makos are predominantly fish-eaters,
although larger individuals may take larger prey (i.e. small dolphins) –
pinnipeds haven’t been recorded in their diet, although in his 2001
revision of Sharks of the World, Prof. Compagno notes that these mammals
may be taken where their range overlaps with large makos.

So, in terms of size, smaller white sharks may overlap with larger
makos, but when considering culprits for possible shark bite-related
mortality of seals (as opposed to the scavenging of dead animals), both
Porbeagles and makos seem unlikely suspects. Nonetheless,
many reported cases of possible white shark activity from UK waters
could easily have been Porbeagles or makos. Again, without proof one way
or another, one tends to err on the side of caution.

In conclusion...To sum all this up, we can say there is still no indisputable evidence
that white sharks inhabit British waters, although if they aren't here
the reason is unclear. Several very credible reports exist providing
very compelling accounts of white shark appearance and behaviour - it's
interesting to note that the most credible reports have come from either
north Cornwall or western Scotland. Unfortunately, the sad lack of
conclusive proof means that, even though it seems likely that they do
visit our shores, UK Great whites are resigned to the ‘possible, but
unproven’ file, along with a report of a (usually tropical) Nurse shark
(Ginglymostoma cirratum - right) apparently spotted by two divers
on the seafloor near Alderney (Channel Islands, UK) in July 2001.

Addendum: I am indebted to Ian Fergusson for taking time out of his
busy schedule to provide me with information and references pertaining
to the northerly distribution of the Great white shark and to Richard
Peirce for running through some of the shark sightings and providing his
appraisal of them. My thanks are also extended to Adrian Brayshaw for
his account of the Blue Fox encounter and to Robert Watkins, Mark
Bradfield, Davey Benson and Douglas Herdson for their provision of, and
comments on, other encounters.